Basic Tips for the Novice Online Freelance Writer

Online writing is seen as a quick way to make money but this is not the case. It takes a lot of patience and skill to be able to gain a full-time income and, even then, there are no guarantees. However, there are some tips to help the novice freelance writer start out with the world of internet writing.

Know the Sites to Stay Away From

The worst thing that can happen in the early stages is falling for a scam company. There are so many people looking to make money online that others are taking advantage of that. When it comes to signing up to freelance writing websites – of any kind! – avoid paying anything upfront. You will already put your time into these websites so do not put money into them too.

It is also worth doing some research into the websites. This will help to avoid issues with sites that do not pay on time and those that have been affected by various search engine algorithms; particularly Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithms. Plenty of people have written reviews about various websites for various reasons so check them out before agree to write for them.

Understand How the Websites Pay

Each website and client will pay in different ways. There are four effective ways to make money with online writing and it is important to understand each one. This will help you determine the type that you want to opt for; you may find benefits in opting for each of them.

Earn Upfront Payments

For those who work for private clients, the chances are that you will work for upfront payments. This is an amount agreed between the writer and the client for a set amount of words. There are also some websites that offer upfront payments. The best part about these websites is that you know the exact amount of money you will have afterwards.

Earn Residual Income Through Advertisement Revenue

The majority of freelance writing websites offer the ability to earn a residual income through advertisement revenue. Some will require that you already have an account, such as Google AdSense, while others will have their own account. These websites pay a set percentage of the residual income earned from people clicking on adverts that appear on your articles.

Earn Residual Income Through Page Views

Another popular option with some online writing websites is earning through page views. This is exactly as it sounds. Freelance writers earn income based on the number of times someone has read the article. Some websites will cap the length of time that the article can earn money.

Earn Through Affiliate Marketing

Something that has become extremely popular in recent years is affiliate marketing. This is when a writer will promote a product for a percentage of the sales. This percentage is agreed upon between the seller of the product and the writer but can be changed at any time. Affiliate marketing can earn much more than advertisement revenue but people have to buy the product through the affiliate link to earn the commission.

Learn Search Engine Optimization

Whether you write on your own blog or write for a website, it is important to learn about search engine optimization (SEO). This is the use of keywords to help people find your content. The robots at the search engines will determine whether a web page is relevant for the searcher based on the searcher’s word used.

Learning SEO takes time and the algorithms change regularly but it is worth it. The better your SEO is, the more chance you have of gaining the traffic and the potential money. One tip is that it is not just about using the right keywords but using them well in your piece. Any article or blog post will need to read naturally, as if written for a human person.

Selecting the Best Keywords

Before doing anything for online writing, it is essential to do some research into keywords. You want to find keywords that are popular with searchers but not as popular with other freelance writers. This will help to put your piece on the first page of the search results quickly so you make more money.

When writing for upfront payments, the client will usually already have keywords in mind. In this case, there is nothing that you need to do other than follow the instructions. Some keywords are much harder to fit into a piece than others so it is important to do the best possible and communicate with the client on a regular basis.

Online writing can be a lucrative business but it takes time. If you are doing this to make money quickly then stop now. You will need to be willing to put a lot of time and effort into your writing and to hone your skills. There is no guarantee that you will make a fortune and many online freelance writers will need to spend hours at the computer with many different clients to be successful.